Officials want to avoid another 'free-for-all' at middle school

The La Grange School District 105 Board is considering ways to bring more gravitas to eighth-grade graduation ceremonies at Gurrie Middle School after a particularly raucous ceremony this spring raised some eyebrows.

"To me, it is a solemn event — it's not a free-for-all," Trustee Larry Prystalski said.

Gurrie's ceremony, held May 29 at the Lyons Township High School South Field House, drew between 1,000 and 1,200 people, District 105 Communications Director Kelly Lenti said via email. The school graduated 140 students this year, Lenti said.

Audience members hooted and called out when students crossed the podium, children ran around during the ceremony and audience members rushed to exit the area after the ceremony, crowding the graduates, trustees said. In addition to their general concerns about the character of the event, trustees expressed concerns about how the students who don't receive many shouts must feel.

"We could control the environment a bit better," Board President Dave Herndon said.

The district held the ceremony at the high school field house for a second year. Before holding it at the field house, the district held the ceremony the Gurrie gym, which proved too small and lacked air conditioning, Lenti said.

The board discussed solutions ranging from ticketing and limiting the event to canceling it. After all, many school districts don't celebrate eighth-grade graduations, said Trustee Robert Webb.

Julian Middle School distributes an etiquette card at its ceremony that asks audience members to "refrain from talking, shouting out or otherwise interrupting the dignity of the ceremony."

Most trustees agreed that a good first step would be to include information about appropriate behavior with the graduation programs that are passed out to ceremony attendants. After that, tickets could be considered.